It sounds old-fashioned. Even cliché. Yet it’s as vital as ever: The defining measure of any man, woman, and child always was, and will be, the matter of how we build our character.
Great minds think alike, and all the greats—from George Washington to Lao Tzu—have cultivated it. Myriad cultures and religions of vastly disparate heredities throughout history have enumerated its laws. Time and again, the building of character has involved self-sacrifice for a greater good—be that truth, freedom, honor, or some higher power.
Building character requires painstaking work and often emphasizes reversed notions of gain and loss. Becoming selfless entails letting go of self-interest, and sometimes even life itself, believing redemption lies someplace beyond. The greedy and selfish know not this principle….